For My Boys
by Sakura-Centric
Summary: Sakura Haruno is assigned her first genin team, Sasuke Uchiha and Naruto Uzumaki. Struggling to keep both from being consumed by darkness, while the two boys are slowly saving her from her own. SasuSakuNaru
1. Chapter 1

**For My Boys**

_I do not, nor have I ever claimed to own Naruto._

**To be honest, I've been thinking about doing a story like this for a long time. I guess you could say I'm totally Sakura-obsessed, always have been. So of course, per usual, Sakura is going to rock. If you don't like Sakura as a lead, don't read my stories. Seriously, don't, they will drive you nuts. But if you're a total Sakura freak like me you'll get it and stick around!**

**Please follow and leave me a review after you read if you like it. ^_^**

Chapter One; Team Seven

The pinkette looked down to her slip of paper for the fifth time before sipping her cup of tea again. Man she was beat. Kabuto had sucked the life out of her during the medical exams. With a sigh, she ran a hand through her long pastel locks. Hoping to calm her pounding headache. Nonstop missions lately and now this? Kami, there was only so much she could take.

Her Eighteenth birthday was a couple months away and that baka Hayate is already talking about throwing a ridiculous party, honestly, who throws a birthday party three months in advance? Well- couldn't be much worse than the time Genma had actually forgotten when her birthday was and thrown it in March instead of May… The pinkette chuckled and set aside her porcelain tea cup, standing and popping her shoulders with a grin.

Looks like she should go pick up her students.

…**.**

"Grrr! Why did we have to get the Sensei who was three hours late!? Huh?!" Naruto yelled furiously, throwing a temper tantrum for probably the fifth time today before a mischievous grin crossed his features, he walked over to the chalkboard and snagged one of the chalkiest ones, wedging it in the doorway with a snicker. "That'll teach em'."

"Naruto." Anko sighed, scratching a scab on her arm, "I am here, y'know."

"_Who even are you?" _He wailed to the older Jounin who had just appeared and offered to join them while they waiting for their sensei. The dark haired woman grinned and scratched the back of her head, "Well me and your sensei are old friends, just wanted to say hi." She chuckled.

"Well… whatever." Naruto shrugged, plopping down to the floor as he watched the door with anticipation, wanting to see his stupid sensei's face when he came through the door and- "OW!" The blonde whined, rubbing the back of his head with a cough as a sheen of chalky white entered his vision. Someone had hit him with an eraser.

He jumped up and whirled around, expecting it to be the stupid teme, when he caught glimpse of some pink haired lady hanging upside down in the window, looking at him with bored, evergreen eyes. She was about four or five inches taller than him and clearly a couple years older, she was still in her teens though, so not too much older. With long silvery pink hair and stark white skin. She looked so young, yet she wore a Jounin flak jacket with a pair of standard black training pants and sandals, her headband tied neatly around her thigh along with a belt hanging by just one loop full of compartments of weapons.

"Whaddid' you do that for?!" The blonde whined, trying to hide the blush dusting his cheeks.

The woman just stared blankly at him, "What? It's okay for you to hit me with erasers but I can't hit you?" she questioned, flipping elegantly and soundlessly, landing on her feet in the classroom, her eyes wandering to the dark haired woman with a sigh. "What is it, Anko?"

The raven haired woman feigned hurt, "Jeeze Sak, I just wanted to assure your little ducklings safety while you were gone!" She sighed dramatically, causing the pinkette's eyebrow to twitch in annoyance. Her lovely face clearly saying, 'leave now or I'll punch you.'

The dark haired woman raised her hands in defense with a smirk, "Hey, hey. I'm kidding. Just here to give you this." She smiled, handing Sakura a mission scroll. The Uchiha who had been watching silently felt his eyes widen a fraction at the color of the scroll, it was an S-class mission scroll and the pinkette looked at it as if it were nothing, stuffing it down into one of the holsters in her belt for later.

She wiped her gloved hands on her pants and turned to the two genin in the room, "So how about we go somewhere else? Classroom's make me sleepy." She smiled, trying to get off to a nice start with the genin she was going to be stuck with for quite some time.

"How is a kid like you supposed to be our Sensei?" The blonde blurted out.

_**THWACK!**_

The trio made their way up the Hokage monument, Naruto rubbing the swollen red lump on her forehead while Sakura examined a medical ninjutsu book she'd brought for light reading. She'd need to keep her skills well oiled now that she had kiddies to watch after, ne? Too bad the blonde haired brat had to go and piss her off, and the dark haired brat refused to say anything, just glaring off into space.

Sighing, the pinkette took a seat on a bench, motioning for the two to do the same. Sasuke didn't mind complying, he was genuinely curious as to how this woman was a Jounin captain at such a young age, the only person he'd known like that was… he pushed back the thoughts for now, clenching his fists in silence.

"So, tell me a little about yourselves." She smiled, causing the blonde to blush.

"Like what?" Naruto questioned.

The pinkette seemed to think on it for a moment, rubbing her chin in thought, "Well, your name, likes, dislikes, dreams, stuff like that."

"You first." Sasuke stated calmly. 

_Wow, so it talks. _Sakura thought with a small smile, "Well, I'm Sakura. I like dango and reading. There isn't anything a particularly dislike and my dreams are a secret for now." She laughed, turning to the blonde, "Okay, you first."

She instantly regretted her decision to let the blonde go first, he wouldn't shut up about ramen. Kami, she didn't even know there were so many ramen-related topics. By the time he was finished talking about ramen she'd nearly fallen asleep.

"...and one day, I want to become Hokage!" Was the last thing the blonde blurted out. Sakura felt one of her eyebrows raise in curiosity, a sad look passed through her eyes for a second, but disappeared, Sasuke seemed to notice but said nothing.

"Oh? And why's that?" Sakura smiled, the sun hitting her from behind, giving off the impression that she was glowing with a warm orange light.

"Well… I want everyone in the village to respect me." He nodded, his whiskered face one of determination. Sakura smiled widely and ruffled his hair. His face lit up a bright red at the warm touch and her soft eyes.

She then turned to Sasuke. "Okay, it's your turn."

"My name is Sasuke Uchiha. There are few things I like and many things I dislike. A dream? I don't have one of those, but I do have a goal… to restore my clan and… kill a certain person." He said slowly, his onyx eyes swirling with a deep hatred that Sakura recognized instantly. A frown tugged at her lips. She'd been close friends with Itachi before… well, before he did _that _and now he left his little brother to suffer the consequences.

"I see." Sakura said calmly, though Naruto was now looking at Sasuke like the plague. "Looks like they stuck me with a bunch of idiots." She sighed dramatically, poking a little bit of fun at the two. Naruto reacted instantly with a loud 'Hey, who are you callin an idiot?' and Sasuke seemed to have known she was just joking around.

"well kiddies, I've got important, _real_ ninja things to be doing. So if you two are also interested in doing _real _ninja things, meet me at Training ground eleven tomorrow for examinations." She laughed with a lazy wave of her hand before disappearing into a puff of smoke.

…**.**

Sakura rolled open her mission scroll, evergreen eyes scanning it carefully, once she had absorbed all the information she dropped it into her fireplace, watching the parchment carefully curl to ash. As she went to pack for her mission, her mind wandered to her team.

Naruto was certainly going to he a handful with all that energy and if he truly was the vessel for the nine tails, he may be more than a handful. Though she hoped it would never come to that. Naruto actually seemed like a sweet kid, compared to the dumb shit the villagers say about him she felt the urge to go and kick some asses but sighed and resisted it for now, she had a job to do.

And as for her other pupil… Sakura's eyes became hazy. She could sense the darkness in him, the hate. When she knew Itachi she was nearly catching up with his record for being one of the youngest ANBU members in the village, yet she'd fallen back after her father had passed away. She briefly wondered if she should send Sasuke to a ninja psychiatrist for a mental evaluation, but deemed it a bad idea. She was sure he would resent her for that, besides, he probably just needed someone to be there for him.

Sighing she threw her pack over her shoulder and with one last glance to her bed, she leapt from her window, heading for the village gates.

…


	2. Chapter 2

_I do not own Naruto. Nope. _

**Hey guys, hope everyone's having a good morning. Mine's been kinda' sucky, no more coffee which always equals a pretty bad morning for me. Plus I've had maybe two hours of sleep, but hey, I'm not complaining. So here's the second chapter, I know it's a bit soon but I'm really excited about this story so here you guys go. Thanks so much for the reviews. **

**Oh and to clear up one of my reviewers, Sakura is 17 and Naruto and Sasuke are both 13. Still an age difference, but not that bad compared to KakaSaku, right? Haha.**

**Please review and follow if you enjoy the story. ^_^**

Chapter Two; Abnormalities

The pinkette trudged back through the village gates. Her limbs felt like they were carrying thirty pound weights and the back of her calves were thudding with cramps. Her chakra was too low to heal such trivial aches and not enough time to cancel on Sasuke and Naruto. Heaving an annoyed sigh she rubbed her temples, pulling a chakra replenishing pill from her thigh pouch and chewing it, trying her best not to make a face at the bitter, chalky taste.

Pulling her long, untame pastel locks into a messy bun atop her head she checked her kunai reserves. She was low on just about everything but she knew she had to go straight from her mission to the training grounds, she should have prepared better. She scolded herself as the bridge to training ground eleven came into view, the pinkette couldn't stop a smile from touching her features as she saw the young blonde leaning against the railing beside the ever brooding Sasuke.

They may have been little brats, but they were cute little brats.

"Hey, you're late!" Naruto scowled, jabbing a finger in her direction once he finally noticed she was there, she laughed a little bit at his anger and rustled his hair, ignoring the glare Sasuke was trying to burn into the back of her head. She was shit tired and had to pretend she had just overslept when in fact she'd been up all night on a mission, these little shits should be more appreciative!

Sighing and rubbing her forehead she led the two boys into the center of the clearing, she drew a pair of bells, the two boys looked at them curiously. "Take these bells from me and I'll take you guys on as my students, if you-"

Sakura sighed, catching Naruto's wrist with ease and twisting it behind his back with ease, holding him in place, completely ignoring his struggles she continued.", as I was saying. You will have three hours to take them from me. But please, Naruto, next time wait until I say go." She sighed. releasing the irritated blonde.

"Okay. Go."

She watched as Sasuke disappeared into the foliage, she could sense his chakra, but he had masked it well. Rolling her eyes she prepared to scold Naruto when he did the oddest thing she could have ever imagine he'd do.

"Kage bunshin jutsu, eh?" She pondered, looking at the hundreds of Naruto clones around her and with a smirk she motioned with her fingers, "bring it on, little man." she chided. Watching the clones start a stampede in her direction. Chuckling as they all dog piled on top of her, a shower of needles shot out from the center of the dogpile, dispersing all the clones. As the sheen of smoke cleared, Naruto stood alone in the center of the clearing, annoyed.

The pinkette watched this go on from the perch of a nearby tree, well aware Sasuke was watching her, planning his attack. She was glad he was thinking on it and not attacking recklessly, but couldn't help but be surprised the two of them weren't understanding the assignment. She was a jounin level ninja, it was clear one of them couldn't take her down herself, but she was aware the two didn't get along, so it probably won't occur to them to work together.

A small frown touched her lips, sending them both back to the academy is going to suck.

…**..**

Sasuke watched her, sitting calmly in the tree, her eyes scanning over Naruto fighting in the clearing. The dobe was too quick to attack, foolish. He soundlessly pulled a kunai from his pouch, squaring it with the pinkette's leg, he had the best aim of his graduating class, he could definitely hit her.

Just as the kunai came inches from the woman's figure she disappeared, Sasuke's growled. Angry he hadn't guessed that it was a clone.

"Attacking me alone?" A voice sighed behind him, causing the Uchiha to roll and flip, creating space between him and the pinkette crouched on the ground in the place he used to be, looking at him with a bored, tired expression. She was mocking him.

"I'm not like Naruto." He said lowly, charging at the woman will full intent to get both bells. She caught his kick with ease, in response he swung a secondary kick at her, since he was quite heavy compared to her she was forced to use some chakra to catch his other leg and swing him upside down, instantly she realized her mistake when one of the bells chimed.

She instantly released him, he was able to catch himself and flip backwards before charging again, she easily side-stepped him and used his momentary lapse to put him under a genjustsu before happily walking off to take a nap or something.

…**.**

_Man, where'd she go? _The blonde wondered, scratching his head in thought. He walked aimlessly through the forest.

Halfway through he found Sasuke wondering around.

"Teme? Heh, what are you doing out here?" He laughed, betting Sakura whooped Sasuke teme too. Smiling, he slapped him on the back good-naturedly, laughing. That little smack was all that knocked Sasuke back into his senses. Angering the young Uchiha, he turned on Naruto, kicking him hard in the calf, knocking the blonde back.

"Hey! What the hell!" The blonde growled, charging at the dark haired teen who was already scolding because he'd been put under a genjutsu, he decided to take over his aggression on his teammate. His hand blurring with seals he placed his fingers to his lips.

A fireball began forming and Naruto was caught breathless, unsure what to do he created as many shadow clones as possible, charging them at Sasuke.

Before either attacks could meet Naruto's clones were all dispersed and Sasuke's fireball was wiped out by a massive water jutsu. In-between the two stood a heavily breathing, highly enraged pink haired shinobi. Her evergreen eyes in smouldering slits as she eyed the two genin.

"_Never attack your comrades." _She growled, grabbing both by the scruffs of their shirts and raising them into the air, "If you two would have just gotten the point of this exercise, I may have let you pass, but this little stunt proves you two aren't _worthy_ to become ninja_." _She spat, dropping both to the ground.

The blonde's fists clenched tightly at the thought of all his hard work going to waste, "Sasuke attacked me first!-"

He was cut off by a harsh slap to the face.

Cupping his reddening cheek he looked up to the pink haired woman standing over him, chest heaving in anger as she faced him, "You are a ninja of Konohagakure. You two aren't children anymore. You need to learn not to act that way, and you-" She scolded, turning to the dark haired boy now standing beside her, eyes lowered in rage.

"Learn to control yourself, didn't they teach you that in the academy you little brat?" She spat. The two thought she was being completely unfair, especially Naruto who had been slapped simply for defending himself from his teammate. But Sakura was at that moment teaching the two a lesson they would value for a lifetime.

"Follow me." She said lowly, her tone said that there would hell to pay if they didn't listen. The two begrudgingly trudged behind her, although with their own little attitudes flaring as their own little rebellion from being told what to do.

She lead them into a clearing just passed the training ground, where a large stone stood, names carved all into the side of the stone. "These are true ninja." She said, sad evergreen eyes traveling over the stone, her gloved fingers lovingly brushing the stone.

"So? If these are true ninja I'll be on there someday! Believe it!"

Sakura's head lowered, "Naruto, these are ninja who lost their lives for the sake of the village." She whispered. Instantly, Naruto regretted his proclamation of wanting to join these ninja. "Every ninja in this village is your comrade, you fight for them when you're in battle. These ninja lost their lives protecting the people they love." Sakura smiled sadly, turning to face the two. Seeing a deep revelation swimming in the cecilian blue eyes of Naruto, but something unreadable in Sasuke's.

"We become ninja to protect this village and those in it. If we're fighting amongst ourselves how could anything ever be accomplished?" She questioned the two boys, her anger slowly disappearing as she saw the sad realization swimming in Naruto's eyes. She gently patted his blonde hair with a small smile.

"You two are a part of the new generation that needs to protect the village. You're the future of the village, but you're going to have to get along. If you don't think that you two can do that, I'm going to have to send you both back to the academy. Do you think you can do that?" She questioned. Truthfully, she didn't want to have to send them back, she believed they both had a chance to survive this world. But they would need a teacher to guide them.

"Yes, Believe it!" Naruto cheered, pumping his fist in the air with a big foxy grin.

"Hn." Sasuke snorted, crossing his arms over his chest. Sakura took that as a yes, or at least as close of a yes as she was going to get.

Sighing, she looked down at her stopwatch, surprised to see it had only been an hour and a half since the exam started. _I guess both of them had been wondering around for a while. _She thought, looking over the two standing before her.

Naruto with his sunshine colored hair and foxy grin.

Sasuke with his raven hair and brooding eyes.

They were so different, but so alike.

Smiling, the pinkette clapped them both over the back. "You know that since you both haven't officially passed my exam you're going to have to make up for it with some extra credit work." She chuckled, watching both boys groan at the thought of whatever wicked punishment this woman was going to inflict on them.

"But for now." She sighed happily, "Let's go celebrate, what do you guys want to eat?"

"RAMEN."

Both Sasuke and Sakura groaned at Naruto's choice of a celebratory meal, Sakura could feel her wallet crying already.

The three made their way back to the village, smiling and joking, even Sasuke wore a small smirk.

This was the beginning of Team Seven.

…**..**


End file.
